A Vampire for Christmas by Laurie London

Author:Laurie London
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HQN
Published: 2011-08-26T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

HE DIDN’T WANT TO GO to Olivia’s Fifth Avenue sanctuary.

He did want to go there.

It had been two days without the smell of her sugar cookie skin brushing his cheek. The shimmer of her hair over his face. The hush of her voice tendering into his heart.

And he missed her so much it hurt worse than the blood hunger after he’d been bitten.

In an attempt to block out the soft call of her haunting spirit, Daniel stalked down the alley behind a nightclub booming with techno music. He wanted blood. He needed it coursing through his body, fulfilling and darkening his lighter desires. It was the only way to rip her cleanly from his soul.

He passed a gaggle of women in skirts too short for winter and makeup too gaudy for all seasons. A couple guys in suits and smoking clove cigarettes nodded at him. He didn’t care for this scene, but it was the furthest from her he could get.

Until he walked right up to the tour bus with that bastard’s face on it—Parker Troy. The man stood in the bus’s open door, flashing his expensive fake teeth at the crush of screaming women who wanted to touch him, grope him, have his baby. Whatever.

Ramming a fist into his palm, Daniel wondered how easy it would be to circumvent the screaming fans to get inside that bus. Ripping out the guy’s throat played through his brain, and then…

He turned and marched away from the bus.

“Idiot,” he admonished. “You don’t rough up a guy because he got the girl and you didn’t.”

He turned sharply and headed for the liquor store, which had become a weekly ritual for him over the past year. His life had changed from suits and business lunches to scamming for blood and late nights watching lovers in Central Park. But all in all? He wouldn’t go back. Because it was the small things that mattered to him now. Like Charity and Mary and Sam.

As usual, Sam was sitting on the broken iron bench out front of the all-night liquor store. He nodded to Daniel.

“Saturday Night Sam.” He acknowledged the old man. “How’s life treating you?”

“Well enough.” He was a man of few words and even fewer teeth.

“As it should. Give me a few minutes. I’ll be right out.”

He entered the store, crowded down the short aisles with doodads and snack foods and alcohol in every flavor, color and proof.

“Give me a pack of Marlboro,” Daniel said as he selected a pint of vodka and set that on the counter.

The guy at the register reached for the cigarettes while managing to not take his attention from the TV sitting on the side of the checkout counter.

The service nowadays, Daniel started to think, but then his attention found the screen, as well. She glowed, her face all soft and delicate. She was wearing the white gown she’d worn nights earlier, so the interview must have been previously taped.

“Olivia is so hot,” the clerk said as he leaned on an elbow, pushing aside a display of silver snowflake ornaments.

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